THQ blames Nintendo for poor performance

Will do better this year, says CEO

THQ President Brian Farrell has cited Nintendo's successful first-party software as the reason their kids' portfolio did not meet expectations last quarter.

In a Q4 earnings call, Farrell said that Nintendo had made the kids' videogames market "extremely competitive" and that was why THQ's "traditionally strong kids' business did not meet expectations," according tocasualgaming.biz.

"The kids' market was extremely competitive during fiscal '08. In fact, it was the most crowded market for videogames for kids in recent memory," he said.

"With a tough Pixar comparison to Cars, [Ratatouille] and new competition from Nintendo's first-party titles - as well as new music games - our traditionally strong kids' business did not meet expectations."

"We believe our fiscal 2009 licensed kids' line-up is much stronger this year and will face a less crowded family movie slate than last year. This quarter we will begin launching games based on Wall-E, the next Disney Pixar film, which has a videogame-friendly robot and outer space theme."